News Roundup 25 May 2021
May 25, 2021 • 4 min Read
COVID-19 deaths in the Philippines cross 20,000 | PHILSTAR.COM – Local health authorities on Tuesday recorded 3,972 more COVID-19 infections, bringing the national caseload to 1,188,672.
- Active cases: 48,201 or 4.1% of the total
- Recoveries: 4,659, pushing total to 1,120,452
- Deaths: 36, bringing total to 20,019
Hontiveros: Use untapped ‘Bayanihan 2’ funds for aid instead of loans | PHILSTAR.COM – Sen. Risa Hontiveros on Tuesday urged the government to realign unused billions under the Bayanihan to Recover As One (Bayanihan 2) Act to give cash assistance to more Filipinos still struggling with the pandemic. Hontiveros said that Bayanihan 2 will expire in less than two months even as many in the country remain in dire need. Among the funds she says should be realigned is a P10-billion allocation under the Department of Trade and Industry’s COVID-19 Assistance to Restart Enterprises (CARES) program for working capital loans to micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs). According to the senator, a majority of the budget remains untapped by MSMEs. “Help instead of loans. Seventy percent of the P10-billion funds for loans under DTI has remained untouched,” she said partially in Filipino. “That’s P7 billion worth of assistance that can benefit around 1.4 million Filipinos with P5,000 each. Don’t waste the fund if it can be given to those who need it the most.” The DTI last Friday said it already approved loans worth P4 billion as of May 17. This would still leave P6 billion under the program unutilized with less than two months left to spend it. “The evidence speaks: the number of people suffering from hunger has doubled. Six out of 10 Filipino families are in debt just to have something on their plates,” Hontiveros said. The senator also renewed her call to institutionalize cash aid through the Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program (4Ps). She said that, based on the social welfare department’s latest poverty survey, the list of beneficiaries for the program will grow by 1.5 million new poor families.
Villar, Binay bicker over restrictions on vaccinated seniors | INQUIRER.NET – Senators Cynthia Villar and Nancy Binay were at loggerheads on Tuesday as to whether or not to ease the restrictions being imposed by the government on vaccinated senior citizens. During the hearing of the Senate committee on economic affairs, Villar questioned the need to continue keeping already inoculated elderly people locked down in their houses, arguing that it defeats the purpose of their vaccination. Villar said that the seniors should at least be allowed to eat out. “Vaccinated na sila [They’re vaccinated already]. Why did you vaccinate them if you will not allow them to get out?” he said. “It’s ironical that you give priority to them then you will not allow them to go out… Baka naman maloko na ‘yon sa bahay.” (They might go crazy if they are not allowed out much longer.) Binay, however, countered that allowing the elderly outside might trigger superspreader events even though they have already received protection from vaccines. She explained that senior citizens were prioritized to get the vaccine against COVID-19 because they are the ones who are more at risk of catching the virus and more vulnerable to severe cases. “Kaya sila yung pinapabakunahan, kasi sila po yung pwedeng mamatay when they get the virus,” she said. (The reason they are being prioritized for vaccination is because they are the ones who could die when they get the virus.) “Yung mga senior citizens natin sila yung pwedeng mag-cause ng collapse ng health system natin kasi sila yung prone [to get COVID],” she stressed. (Our senior citizens can cause the collapse of our health system because they are the ones prone to get COVID.)
Opposition must have a common standard-bearer in 2022 — Robredo | Manila Bulletin – Vice President Leni Robredo believes the opposition should field a single standard-bearer to increase its chances of winning against President Duterte’s anointed candidate in the May 2022 polls. Although she has yet to make a final decision on her possible presidential bid, Robredo shared her two cents on the matter when asked during an online leadership forum organized by the Cambridge University Filipino Society. “We have to accept that the President is, again, a very popular president. And to have many different candidates running against the elections will only ensure another six years of victory of the same kind of governance,” she said. “And I’m not sure it’s to the best interest of the country. So my sense is that whatever will be good, or whatever will be required to unite the opposition, whether the candidate is myself or some other person,” Robredo added. 1Sambayan, a united opposition group convened by the President’s arch-nemesis, retired Supreme Court Associate Justice Antonio Carpio, has been vocal about considering the vice president to be its standard-bearer for the 2022 polls.
